Thursday, November 3, 2016

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

Pretty much everyone knows who Tarzan is. However, there is a female character who is much like Tarzan and, personally, if I was in the jungle and could be saved by either Tarzan or Sheena, I'm picking Sheena.

Like Tarzan, Sheena was also an orphan who grew up in the jungle and could communicate with animals. Her fighting skills included fighting with knives, spears, bows, and pretty much any weapons she could make.





2 comments:

  1. Sheena is in the public domain? I thought Devil's Due and currently Dynamite hold rights

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  2. There is a difference between holding the Trademark of the title as opposed to the copyright. For example, I can't put out a comic called Tomb of Dracula. But I can put out my own comic featuring Dracula. I wouldn't however be able to use any element that was introduced in and is unique to Tomb of Dracula.

    I can't figure out if Sheena the character is public domain or if it's just the Golden Age comics that are Public Domain which would mean anyone could reprint those comics but they couldn't put out a new comic featuring the character. Interestingly enough Fleischer Superman cartoons are in the Public Domain. So anyone can put out a DVD with those cartoons (although only the Warner Brothers and Image releases are quality prints, each nice in different ways) but they can't use Superman in ANY other way.

    It looks like Dynamite is listing Galaxy Publishing and Valdoro Entertainment as the copyright holders of Sheena. It's not clear to me if that applies to the character in any use of perhaps a version of the character that was used in certain movies, TV shows, or comics. It could also be the case that there is legal ambiguity over whether they own the character and that the legal costs to challenge it isn't worth it for anyone else who wants to use the character (which is sadly very common). I'd like to do more research on the subject because it would be pretty interesting if she was indeed public domain.

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